Interesting, after reading this it doesn't actually help much with ranked though does it? Ranked is usually competitive so you would naturally get anxious about making a mistake as you can't exactly play it like a unranked game. Otherwise I agree, losses are inevitable and you shouldn't look down on them.

I really like this. I haven't wanted to play ranked because I don't want to lose any mmr, but the one line "As pub players, our losses also mean that our future games may be matched with weaker players. Any points lost will be easier to win back." wants me to start playing ranked matches again

@D√0xFFFFail
Nope I am sure playing ranked games less seriously increases level of play.

Huh? Longest Losing Streak is still on my profile.

"As pub players, our losses also mean that our future games may be matched with weaker players." - Yes, but this also means that you will probably get matched with shittier teammates as well (when solo matchmaking)
:)

Quite true in some aspects. Although not everyone will read this and be motivated by it. Dota is a team game and always will be,even if 2 or 3 guys in a team has the right mindset,whats left of the other two? This is why gradual MMR ratings are kept at bay. Unless you're team are not a bunch of idiots who flame you for no appropriate reason,nothings gonna happen.

Losing
Being flamed for any reason, even if unjustified
Not playing well (don't meet your expectations)
Poor teammates
Drop in MMR

I met all this conditions in the past week, feels bad to the point I even want to lose just to see how far this shit can go.

So, the idea: you are playing alone and if you want to win, you must be good enough to play 1 vs 9.

My longest losing streak still is on my profile, and I don't mind having it.

Nice conclusion, I'll use it when people ask me why I play dota. Though I don't usually find myself stressed at playing dota, if I lode badly twice I get a rest from it for a couple of hours or for the day, usually helps

I will tell you the number 1 cause of anxiety in this game... the community. It's a game where under 300 games total and below 50% win rate = failure at life, community shunning. and if you are a good newer player with fewer games, but a decent win rate, then you must be a smurf in the eyes of others.

it's a game where you wanna be part of it's community, but find it so hard to when *cough cough* "Advanced (lifeless) Players" drive a nail in your head because you havn't gotten 1000 matches with over 50% win rate like they do yet. i know they have strongly discouraged me from being a regular player to a more casual player. well that and Terraria addiction.

i never wanna play unranked cause if i win playing good in unranked i feel like im gonna lose my ranked lol

> At Dotabuff, we've also removed the "longest losing streak" from our records page.

Except you didn't actually remove it >.>

My longest losing streak can still be found, but anyway, who cares.
6 lose streak isn't that bad. I have a friend who's fucking better than me had a 11 lose streak.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with stressful situations. For example, some people may find they need to focus on relaxing to clear their heads, while others may need to "bounce off the walls" and hype themselves. The key is finding what works for you, and using it. If sitting quietly taking deep breaths works for you, fantastic. It it makes you dwell on negative thoughts, try doing something that will take your mind off of it.

I quit playing solo since supporting my first 10 ranked games pit me with retards and i got a far smaller solo MMR than i deserve and even when i go non ranked games i can't stand all the retards out there. You can actually say that this retarded community sort of pushed me away from the game in a way and I've been playing for 9 years. But with Valve limiting people to 6 reports per week which is ludacris, and punishing people for being angry at retards instead of the retards themselves i suppose it's no surprise. And I'm not alone in this. league of legends may be a complete shit of a game but they care about their community and work on improving it. In dota you are punished for voicing your frustration of people ruining the game on purpose. Yesterday i had A RANKED GAME in which our offlane mirana was level 5 after 15 mins and after calling him a retard he right clicked me and went afk so his hero was just following me all game doing nothing (even though i was a very farmed CK trying my best to carry the game). And in the end i got muted and that retard got away unscathed. Nice job at improving the community Valve, limit people to 2 reports per week and start giving benefits to morons instead of punishments, it's a logical progression of what you've been doing so far

@MartinDeth

I've got some tips for you.

1) Don't be angry at others.
You're never gonna win if you're angry enough to call people retards. If they're bad, don't call them retarded, give them advice on how to do better. If they're bad, just do your best and leave the game knowing that you've played your heart out.
2) Don't be angry at Valve
I burned through all my reports in a week pretty quickly (I get 6 a week, I think). All of the people that were reported were being insulting and unhelpful to the game, such as a Windranger who was lol-Force-Staff-ing me into the entire enemy team. Or a guy that was whining for the entirety of the game and swearing. Reports are aimed at people that are toxic and (such as yourself, by the sounds of things) do not deserve to play online video games. Reports are NOT for people that are bad at Dota, that is your responsibility to fix, to try and teach them.
3) Don't go into a game in a bad mood.
This is mentioned in the article that I presume you've read, so I'm not gonna spend long on this. Just have fun, play well and try and help the members of your team doing not so well. I like to play supports that can transition into carry roles just in case other people aren't doing well, or roaming supports so that the 4 carry lineup can have space to farm in. If you're gonna carry, pick self-sufficient carrys or strong lane carrys such as Necrophos or Kunkka so that you can win your lane easier, since you clearly don't trust your support(s) to clear up space for you.
4) Don't think you're better than your team.
Arrogance is the first step down a long road in the "trench". If you play well, congratulations - that does not mean you're better than your team. They might be having a bad day on one of your good days. If you have an attitude of just playing your best, then you won't feel bad if you lose and will realise that this is a team game, and is very different from fragmatch shooters where it only takes 1 person to shine.

I wish you the best of luck in Solo Queue, because you can meet some great people there. I recommend Captain's Mode for meeting friendlier people in more organised games.

Good article, much truth.

@Martin

I don't follow the constant whining about "retarded" players: Everyone that doesn't select his/her other 4 party members him/herself _knows_beforehand_ that there is a chance that he/she will end up with 1 to 4 players in party that are strangers, that might or might not understand a certain language and the core the mechanics of the game. In addition even if one happens to be put in a party where all players are of "equal skills" accroding to a formula that in itself still doesn't tell us anything at all about how many of them happen to be proficient in a given role, and with given laning partners/heroes, in dual/tri-lanes, and so on.

Needless to say, there are a zillion reasons for why it is generally a really bad idea to play a 5 vs 5 game such as Dota 2 with 4 total strangers in party. This however doesn't matter much until you yourself start raving/reporting/getting spasmatic because you didn't understood this and still went along with playing with strangers: There is really nothing that forces you to do so, or maybe.. hrm... getting to know people and start playing with them instead?

It's a paiful thread for me. It can take me hours to overcome my ladder anxiety when I want to play solo ranked. And I'm only 4K MMR.

@Onkel

-I always give advice to people in the game and i never start out angry. I've grown up with this game and know my way around it and I always try to help people out as best as i can. But how do you excuse 15 minutes of feed followed by doing nothing for the rest of the game but right click me and follow me??? They had a good Brood pushing hard, i stun her 4 sec, dust her, follow her to infinity and this guy just walking behind me. IN A RANKED GAME! A person like that is beyond redemption and deserves every bad comment that can be thrown at him! And he's just one of a billion retards i often come across.

-You say i am not worthy to play an online game. I ALWAYS give my maximum, i ALWAYS play to the last minute even if it's against mega creeps with 25K disadvantage while idiots give first blood and go afk saying the game is lost. You say i do not deserve to play and i am toxic but people ruining the game for 4 other people are not. In that case i am sorry i do not live up to your high standards by DOING MY BEST IN A GAME instead of giving up 10 mins in and ruining it for my team. I will be sure to call GG after feeding first blood and going afk starting my next game, hopefully i will be up to your standards.

- I don't go into a game with a bad mood. I play supports almost exclusively and let me tell you one more story. I was lich once, game was hard but we started coming back. I managed to get a mek, kept it warded constantly and our carry started to get back in it. Then out of the blue our offlane dark seer went Omg this lich fucking idiot you are losing us the game etc etc. I ignored him at first and kept playing but after 5 more whines i snapped and went on to feed out of spite. So it's the game putting me in a bad mood due to the scum filling it. But as I mentioned in the last part, i will do my best to emulate this dark seer in order to become a more worthy player.

- I have an attitude of playing at my best and that's why it's more infuriating to have mindless human filth ruining everything every single time. As i said i mostly support in games, i find myself VERY often keeping my team in the game single handedly almost and in the end i get blamed. Or when i carry and have 0 wards, 0 miss calls, 0 ganks, and end up with no items said supports (almost having their aghs 40 mins in) blame it on me. It's scum like this that put me and countless others in a bad mood.

- I have met some good people while soloing one of which is the friendliest person ever and we've been playing together for a year now. But people like him are few and far in between all the scum. I myself am a great person and i am the first to acknowledge a good player and to commend him in game. But when someone is being bad, doesn't take suggestions, and in the end blames you and due to the retarded punishment system YOU get punished instead of that moron, then you tend to snap. And I for one have built up a low tolerance for bullshit hence all the anger.

You are free to think of me however you want, you can think I'm a troll, you can think I'm a flamer, a bad player trying to justify his own actions or whatever. The truth is I am a product of my own surroundings and as far as Dota 2 goes, the surroundings are full of shit people being shit to other people and deserve every ounce of hate they get.

It's a good article... but this doesn't help my anxiety with playing ranked mode. Especially with a toxic community like our's.

@DC | MartinDeth
I totally feel you. There is a struggle if I choose decent carry or a support. If I support, usually roaming, sustain the lane, pull creeps, warding, but our carry cant carry. He dont know when to push , when to farm jungle, when to tp. Eventually feeding to enemy gank. If i choose to play carry, I am afraid no one will support, even there is a support, he did not really know where to ward...

Enough to say, it is a not question what role we play, it is a question, how valve choose 5 players in a team randomly. I remember in an update, it explains it, that is a 5 men team, 1 guy will have 3000mmr, another one has 2500, and 3rd one has 2000 mmr etc vs another team with similar situation. I do not think it is a good idea. I can see they try to ask the experienced play to lead and tutor the less experienced ones, but usually DOTA players are not so open to hear the advice. I just wonder why they can not put 5 people with same level at a team, like 5 2000ish vs 5 2000ish people, 2500ish vs 2500ish people. The less difference in MMR in a same team, the more equality and awareness of dota they will have. Actually, it should be played like that. People with similar level in a same team will have best gaming experience. Just like other sports, middle schools kids play with middle schools, high school play with and against highschool, college vs college, professional vs professionals. If valve tries to make a team with members from each category, that is current dota2 matching make system, unfortunately.

So, I think this is the root of the anxiety. Every game started with a gambling bet for choosing the "appropriate hero ", since you never know how your teammates would be and how he would play his hero. Overall, that' s how I feel every time I need to pick a hero. So now, for winning, I will always choose carry, not support.

Let me tell you what i encountered in the last 2 months. (range 3.3k - 2.8k)

-no wolf lycan (6.80) with necro 3, yet he never used them.
-first item aghs tinker.
-no bear druid
-arcane axe (as the sole initiator)
-blink slardar against riki yet he only use his ulti and chase with sprint. what he said was "i'm just scaring him"
- 40 min initiator maidens (boots were the only mobility item)
- no solo queue therefore big gaps between players. like one guy having 3.5k and other has 2.5k party yet they both feederino.
etc. etc.

Problem is the whole mmr system is flawed, some people get carried by another people (not in parties) and some are just grabbing others to their shithole tier. I think the only solution could be getting in queue with roles selected and heroes locked with specials scoring system for your performance (like those in fantasy leagues). Otherwise it's impossible to get higher ranks without playing a snowball mid hero or being a good support with extreme luck to have a decent carry.

It doesn't matter if you are 20-0 or 0-20, if you lose, you lose -25. That's another problem. As mainly playing support, it's impossible to climb steadily to higher ranks without investing serious playing time or picking a snowball hero.

And did i ever mention russians or peruvians?

Matchmaking in Dota is very good. MMR range in my solo ranked games is +-50 pts at biggest.

For me Matchmaking is way better, game are more serious (ward/sentry/dust/smoke every time) and there are no such troll/feeder .. like in unraked.
I'm playing only in captain mode and captain draft a bit above 4k and we have almost balance team, you can play what role you prefer if you just ask in the loby.

You have nothing to lose by playing in ranked, i have improved much faster by playing ranked.
If you don't risk your mmr you will never increase it. Even if you lose you are learning anyway and you will be match up with player of your level.

I don't want losing streak to be removed from my profile. Reason being, if I'm gonna have a bad losing streak, I can still see in my records that I've had worse before. :D

And in case, current losing streak is worse ever, I can still tell myself that it is the worse phase right now and I will not have such a phase again in a long time. :)

Play for yourself
Fuck your team
Dota is a fucking 1v5 where your team is dead meat
I play MY best and ignore my team (Unless we can kill, but I do that so I (ME) can win)
Just try YOUR best and don't focus so much on what your team is doing
Also, you lose some, you win some thats life

dota is a 1v5 game.

anything less you're setting yourself up for MMR hell.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/646328802

Playing with the spectre has made me quit dota for a while

^ oh dear, i feel you man

@Blank

Try getting angry at him for ruining your game and putting you through 40 mins of agony, he's gonna get nothing and u will get muted for a month. Thanks Valve

@ MartinDeth
"I ignored him at first and kept playing but after 5 more whines i snapped and went on to feed out of spite."
"I ALWAYS give my maximum, i ALWAYS play to the last minute"
"mindless human filth"
"I myself am a great person"

There is alot of controversy here, you should really take a long hard look at yourself and realize when you are being toxic. No judgement, we've ALL been there and we've all raged but understand what your actions/words actually produce.

You get angry so you want to vent and defend yourself. You start a typing war with the "retard". Please understand that there is NO WINNING down this path. You won't change the opinion of the retard, your team probably doesn't care and you end up distracting everyone. Except from the obvious dangers of typing in the middle of a game (countless deaths because "FFS TYPING") you are being counterproductive with your morale and time. It is NOT your job to teach everyone manners. It is NOT your job to make them understand why they are wrong. Your job is to have fun and win games and going in a flame war, achieves neither.

The *SECOND* you realize someone is toxic, mute him. Don't bother trying to rationalize or communicate, MUTE HIM. I've seen excellent players that very politely announce thath they are muting everyone at the start of the game; you would be surprised by how little typing is required to understand each other in Dota.

When someone isn't exactly toxic but you disagree with their actions, take the higher path and type nothing other than directly game related *suggestions*. No critic, no bitter comments, no arguments. The way you say things can make a world of difference, trust me. Compare these and see for youself:
"STOP FEEDING YOU MOTHERFUCKING NOOB" vs "Stick with me/support for protection, they are ganking a lot"
"Nice build you moron" vs "You should go XXitem next, we need dmg/tankiness/disable"
"OMFG YOU CAN'T HIT YOUR SPELLS U BLIND BITCH" vs "It's hard to hit that spell, wait until someone disables first"
"WHY THE FUCK YOU HAVE NO FARM" vs "You should spend the next 10 mins farming only. Stay safe and don't come to fights"

It's hard to follow this path, I've played for over 10 years and I still rage sometimes (alot). I can't promise you that you will reach 6k MMR with these tips alone but at least they helped me stop grinding my teeth and beating my kids after every toxic loss. In the long run, it does help the community get better and you are sure to win at least 2-3% more games that you would otherwise lose due to complete and utter frustration.

OHHHHHHHHH RETARD TEAMAMTES

I started to play regular pub before ranked. If I win I go play ranked, if I lose I go play another game. I gained 400+ rating using this strat!

How am I supposed to overcome fear of getting pudge in my team?

"Problem is the whole mmr system is flawed, some people get carried by another people (not in parties) and some are just grabbing others to their shithole tier. I think the only solution could be getting in queue with roles selected and heroes locked with specials scoring system for your performance (like those in fantasy leagues). Otherwise it's impossible to get higher ranks without playing a snowball mid hero or being a good support with extreme luck to have a decent carry.

It doesn't matter if you are 20-0 or 0-20, if you lose, you lose -25. That's another problem. As mainly playing support, it's impossible to climb steadily to higher ranks without investing serious playing time or picking a snowball hero."

^^^ This so much!

If I play a support role and you don't get last hits because you suck, we're already doomed. If I try to steal last hits because you suck, then you whine and bitch and moan.

When playing with randoms, it seems like you have to be super greedy to give yourself a chance to win.

I know I'm not the best Dota 2 player, but I don't get anxiety over losing MMR. Rather it's from playing with a bunch of no-nothings and having a completely uncompetitive match.

Who cares if you win or lose as long as the game was close?

Well... Im playing on EU servers and its always like 2-3 russians in my team everytime. Doesnt really matter which hero im playin, it always end with them abusing and screaming on everyone who is not in party with them. And this guys can do something like dual lane with luna and am, feeding 10 kills in 5 minutes. How do you win with that? Ofc theres constant spam with cyrillic. These guys runnin with no boots or buying only boots at the start, you just know instantly - this game gonna SUCK, and you waste 40 minutes of your life. I agree there is a problem with MMR system, the guy can feeding for purpose, screaming, abusing, and he gets -25 and nothing else. Not muted, not in LPQ, notihng. Same thing with abandons - guy leaves in 10 minute, and he gets -25, why? He should instantly get -100 at least.
Edit: People tellin not to be angry at 'retards' and try to reason them instead of calling them names... Ofc you can do this.. if they speak English! Cause WEST EU servers are ALWAYS full of russians, that dont even know English, just typing and screaming 'CYKA NOOB RIPORTET', and thats the problem of DOTA, after 2-3 reports that guy should be banned from EU server for not speaking language HE CHOSE in options.

@Hoi_gr

Trust me man, i do not condensate my team from the start, i am always cool and try to be friendly with everyone from the start. But after telling lion "Man, we need you to use your blink dagger to instasnipe Sniper otherwise he is gonna rape us all" 500 times and yet he doesn't do anything and whines and I am basically carrying with Bounty, having my entire team on my back, i get angry. And those things may have been contradictory, I play to the very end vs I got pissed and fed, but it was only that one time that i really did that, and it was on a smurf acc. If you check my profile you'll see that i have a great win rate with Lich and i would not ruin it cause some retard started talking shit. It's all just moments of mayhem with true toxic players. I say true because you probably think i am one of those. I am very self critical and if i ever let my team down i admit my mistake and don't talk back when being abused, since i know i made a mistake and ruined the game for my team. You seem to be a good person yourself, and as you said, u tend to rage out from time to time. It's essentially part of the game, but when the idiots start becoming the majority... That's when you really have a problem and that seems to be the case with Dota 2

Nice blog, will bookmark because this is something that happens to everyone and its good to read something how to fight against ladder anxiety

Here my tips :

1 - NEVER play a ranked match in all pick. Ranked mean u want some competition, so why play a casual mode in a competition environement ? just a nonsens

2 - NEVER play a ranked match if you are not 5 player in a group. The most important thing in dota is teamplay ! Do u realy want bet on your random (russian if you are unlucky) teamates to got a good teamwork ?

3 - Ignore is your best freind. Try don't flame (yeah sometimes it's pretty hard), try to teatch other player, try to have a good "climact" in your team. If someone begin to insult / flame / whinig and start ruining your game, just ignore him.

Muting all 9 players before the game starts - the best practice in my battle against the ladder anxiety so far.

@ DC | MartinDeth

Idiots were always the majority. Even when the first caveman invented fire, I'm sure he was surrounded by a bunch of retards that clubbed him to death for it.

Letting all those idiots and negativity get to your head is very harmful to your emotional and psychological health as well as your MMR. Finding a way to block their influence is probably more important than second guessing and beating yourself up for mistakes in strategy and playstyle. The tips I mentioned work for me but you might need to search for what works for you.

Stay strong, keep your pokerface and always strive to play your absolute best, which can't happen if you are wasting time and thought for people that don't deserve it

@ M.C.S.M.vsME
That's an interesting concept. Do you think it's because you get an indication of your skill level at that particular moment or because of the positive boost of a win? Do you do it between ranked games or just once at the start? I'm assuming you also try to pick the same hero for both matches?

@DC | MartinDeth and Onkel

Onkel's strat is the right one, but it won't work in every situation, the dota community is too broken for it to work everytime, Martin has the right idea of the community, but the wrong approach to it, you shouldn't be against the people who turn up in your pubs, even when they're retards and assholes, you should always try to appear as if you're with them all the way even if you hate them, this way they never feel the need to rage at you until they think you've made a mistake, at which point you can either explain what you did and how it lead to what happened, or you can just mute them and report them(although always save your reports for the people who you think will actually get action taken against by valve, that way you can get more reports for reporting people who deserve it).

My biggest advise: Don't play a game if it stresses you out. I've had personal experiences with that and I can say I've already lost a friend or two and made big mistakes with my family. Today I play dota and I play for fun, yet my friends rage so hard I barely want to play with them anymore. If you can't handle the level of competition in dota, you're missing out the biggest fun part in the game.

My point is,don't expect much from mmr,there's no point of big or low mmr as long as you're playing your best and knows your capability and limits,I myself are a Captain of local professional team and as long as I play dota,it's always about teamwork,no more than that.I've experienced losing streaks with team of trolls,people who don't know what's going on,and people that is simply egoistic and don't know how to play as a team.So it's best to just play ranked to improve yourself,winning or losing aren't matter,as it's not professional match and every game we did actually makes us improve even more :D

win loseing streak = 10/10 but this week 2win streak 8lose streak... This month dropped more then a whole % win rate yep thats what annoys me...

quick tip boys
_ dont get mad AT ALL
_dont blame your team for your failures
_learn how to communicate <you play a team game ,dont forget it>

then you'll be fine

One way to get over latter anxiety is to remember when you were X MMR lower than you are now and think about how you struggled at that rating, but now you would demolish those players at that rating.

You just have to think about how in another 6 months/a year/whatever you will look back at your current rating and think the same thing as above.

Just play and who cares if you lose rating, you will eventually get better and surpass your current skill to the point where you will laugh at how you struggled at that rating.